Although police misconduct has interested policing scholars for many years, extant research has been largely atheoretical and
has ignored the role of organizational justice in understanding the behavior. This study uses survey data from a random
sample of 483 police officers employed in the Philadelphia Police Department to explore the role of organizational justice in
police misconduct. Results indicate that officers who view their agency as fair and just in managerial practices are less likely
to adhere to the code of silence or believe that police corruption in pursuit of a noble cause is justified. Furthermore, perceptions
of organizational justice are associated with lower levels of engagement in several forms of police misconduct. The
results suggest that organizational justice is a promising framework to understand police misconduct and may help guide
police administrators in the implementation of effective management strategies to reduce the incidence of the behavior.